Cruise line gets mixed reviews in aftermath of rocky ride

Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas encounter with nasty weather earlier this month initially got rave reviews from guests and critics alike. Initial reports indicated the line did everything by the book and when out of its way to accommodate all on board. As time went on though, the story got a bit ugly.

The line was quick to issue $200 onboard credit and a full refund for those on board even though the cruise was almost over when the incident occurred. Initial reports were highly in favor of the cruise line doing the right thing.

But it did not take long for critics to smell a bigger story in the water causing cruise industry expert Stewart Chiron CEO of CruiseGuy.com to tweet “Did @RoyalCaribbean panic by refunding #cruise passengers on Brilliance of the Seas on 8th day of 12-night sailing? Must B more 2 story!” shortly after the event.

Indeed, it was a developing story and Royal Caribbean spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez told AOL Travel News. “As the cruise progressed, additional guests presented to the medical facility with symptoms and/or injuries” and the cruise line posted this video:

Adding to increasingly mixed reviews on how Royal Caribbean handled the situation, Maritime attorney Jim Walker had sharp criticism saying “RCCL has pulled this stunt time and time again, quickly issuing misleading statements in the hope that the media will quote its carefully crafted misinformation and then the story will quickly blow over”

Passengers who were actually onthe ship tell a bit different story though. Industry insider cruisecritic.com reports one typical passenger saying Royal Caribbean “went overboard” with the compensation.

Flickr photo by Rennett Stowe

3 no-brainer cruise safety tips

There are a lot of great features on your upcoming cruise vacation. Good times with friends and/or family, seeing new and exotic ports of call or visiting ones you’ve already seen again and lots of stuff to do on board the ship are just a few.

You’ll be encouraged to get into the whole experience and that’s good advice. You can unwind, relax and come away a new, renewed person. Throughout your voyage you’ll have the opportunity to do or not do some things that can impact your experience. Here are three cruise safety tips that focus on some things you don’t want to do.

  1. Don’t blindly trust the youth counselors– We want to believe the best of everyone and we really want to believe that the people we trust with our kids are good people. Take a few minutes from time to time throughout the voyage to make eye contact with and talk to the youth counselors that will have direct contact with your kid. If you see something odd in those eyes, don’t be afraid to walk right out of there with your kid. Trust your instincts as a parent; they are as good at sea as they are on land.
  2. Don’t visit crew areas of the ship– This sounds like a no-brainer, crossing over into the world marked “crew-only”, but here’s one good reason for it: While you are visiting with your new crew friend, you are surely not in your cabin and that would be a great time for some other crew member to get in and take your stuff. If you or someone you know is entering the crew-only world that’s a big red flag that something is wrong. Maybe that person is drinking too much and having an alcohol-induced crush on that handsome bartender with the charming accent.
  3. Don’t blindly go ashore- Bad stuff can happen when traveling anyplace by any method of travel. There are bad parts of most all towns whether on a Caribbean island or in the middle of some continent. Going ashore, from a native point of view, there are two kinds of people; those going on an organized shore excursion and those going it on their own. The later are the easy marks and the ones crooks most commonly target. Yes, there are rare stories of groups on excursions being held up too but a couple or small group walking around town for shopping are easy prey.

Top 3 stupid things to do on a cruise

A cruise vacation can be a great way to travel. Once on the ship, you’re in a closed environment that is protected from many of the potential dangers that await those traveling some other way. But while cruise lines say things like “Do whatever you want to, it’s your cruise”, or “You are free to do...whatever!” there are limits. While there are a lot of stupid things to do on a cruise, here’s the top three:

1. Get in a big argument with somebody and call them names. If you happen to have a short fuse or are really impatient, check that at the gangway. Once you are on board the ship how you behave can have a real impact on the experience. You’ll hear the captain referred to as the “master of the vessel” and with good reason. He has the authority to throw you off the ship at the next port with no refund and no way to get back home except on your own if you cause trouble. Not long ago, a drunken brawl on Carnival Dream resulted in 10 guests waving good bye to a ship that left them behind.

2. Practice your swan dive over the side of the ship. This will most likely kill you and is something to avoid. You really have to try to make this happen too. Falling off the ship is a lot like falling off a 10-story building; your odds of survival are not good. If the impact of hitting the water doesn’t kill you, strong currents created by the ship’s movement will.

3. Stock up on drugs while ashore. If you want to buy drugs ashore you can on pretty much any Caribbean island. Just look for the cool guy with the Bob Marley look and you’ll get hooked up fast. Odds are you can get them back on the ship pretty easy too. They don’t strip-search embarking passengers. Where you will run into problems is back home when it’s time to get off the ship. Drug sniffing dogs that check luggage coming off the ship will find your “souvenirs” and you will go to jail.

If you follow the golden rule of cruise ship conduct “Don’t do anything that would require talking to security or having your body identified” you should be OK.

Carnival Splendor update: woes continue, ship out of service longer

Carnival Splendor, the ship that caught fire not long ago, putting an abrupt end to sailings of the ship from the West coast, will be held out of service longer than anticipated.

Taken out of service for repairs in November, Carnival Cruise Lines announced at the time that all sailings between then and January 16th had been canceled. In an update today that number was pushed forward to February 20, 2011.

“We sincerely apologize to our guests for having to cancel these additional cruises,” said Gerry Cahill, Carnival’s president and CEO. “We made our best effort back in November to estimate the necessary repair time with a strong goal of not having to modify it at a later point in time.”

As repairs were done, additional issues were discovered and some needed parts where not available.

“Unfortunately, as the repairs have progressed and we have discovered additional issues, it is now clear that we need more time. We know this is extremely disappointing for our guests and particularly disheartening for those who already had their vacations canceled once and are now being affected again.” Cahill added.

Guests booked on newly-canceled sailings will receive a full refund of what they paid or a future cruise credit of equal value in addition to a 25% discount and/or on board credit if they re-book on a future sailing depending on the ship and sailing date of the new booking.

Our friends over at AOL Travel have been in touch with the cruise line and have more details on the impact the new discoveries will have for future cruise passengers on the Splendor.

Flickr photo by DVIDSHUB

Cruise ship power outage found to be explosion

Most of the passengers on board Cunard Line’s Queen Mary 2 were sleeping when the ship lost power on the morning of September 23rd. What was believed to be a brief power outage has now been identified as a more serious problem.

After a complete investigation, the UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) ruled this week that the event was actually the result of an engine room explosion. In a report published this week the event was described as a “catastrophic failure” of electrical capacitors caused by gradual deterioration.

While passenger safety was not compromised the explosion, deemed strong enough to damage steel doors, adds to a call for improved cruise ship safety world-wide.

Maritime attorney Jim Walker notes “The reporting of this latest incident raises the issue of the safety of foreign flagged cruise ships, and comes after a string of recent disturbing mishaps.”

Earlier this week passengers were poisoned by potentially lethal hydrogen sulphide gas on Princess Cruises Sea Princess. On Holland America, a reportedly drunken passenger got into crew-only secured area and dropped the ship’s anchor. Carnival Splendor continues repairs for an on-board fire that canceled sailings between now and January.

While cruise vacations continue to be one of the safest methods of travel, these incidents have cruise lines taking a long, hard look at existing safety policies.

Flickr photo by Dawn Encido